SANAA, March 24 (NNN-XINHUA) — The World Health Organization (WHO) airlifted COVID-19 testing kits and personal protective items for health workers to the war-ravaged Yemen, the UN aid agency said Monday on Twitter.
The shipment included lab screening tests and trauma medicine provided to the health authorities in the government-controlled southern port city of Aden and the Houthi-held capital Sanaa, it said, adding that the shipment aid was airlifted by Saudi Arabia.
Despite the fact that no case of COVID-19 has been registered yet in Yemen, the rival parties have both imposed health precautionary measures this week.
Plagued by cholera, malnutrition and diphtheria, Yemen lacks the ability to cope with deadly epidemics as its five years of civil war has almost destroyed more than half of its healthcare system.
The war erupted in late 2014, when the Iran-backed Houthis seized control of much of the country’s north and forced the Saudi-backed government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi out of Sanaa.
–NNN-XINHUA
